


Strange Bedfellows

by decadent_mousse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Accidental Cuddling, Fluff, Hermann is a cuddler, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 06:31:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3436979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Hermann and Newt first arrive at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, a paperwork mix-up forces them to share a room for awhile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange Bedfellows

**Author's Note:**

> I've been pecking at this one for awhile!

“This is completely unacceptable.”

Hermann was seething so hard, Newt could have sworn there was _steam_ coming out of his ears.  The way he was glaring at the contents of his bags as he unpacked, he half-expected Hermann’s sweater collection to spring out of his luggage and run sobbing from the room.  He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the arrangement, either, but seeing how much it irritated Hermann almost made it worth it.

There’d been some sort of paperwork snafu and when they’d arrived at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, Newt’s room – which apparently had been used as spare storage space – wasn’t cleared out and ready for him yet.  Which meant for the next week Hermann had to share _his_ room with him.

_It’s only a week,_ he thought as he flopped onto Hermann’s bed.  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

Hermann turned his withering glare from his luggage to Newt.  “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What’s it look like?  I’m gonna take a nap.  It was a long flight.”

“You don’t expect to sleep on the bed, do you?”

Newt snorted and closed his eyes.  “Where else am I gonna sleep?”

“On the floor.”

“Pfft, on the fl–“  His eyes snapped open and he gaped at Hermann.  “Wait, what?!  You’re joking… right?”

“I’m quite serious.”

He stared at the other man for a long moment before laughing.  “Yeah, sure.  Ha, ha, very funny, dude, you had me going for a second there.”

~

Half an hour later, Newt was staring up at the ceiling.

“I can’t believe you’re seriously making me sleep on the floor.”

“In case you have forgotten, this is _my_ room.  Be grateful I’m allowing you to sleep here at all.”

“Oh, I’m oozing gratitude, believe me.”

He couldn’t really see Hermann’s face from where he was laying, but he could practically feel him rolling his eyes.  Jerk.  

Newt sighed and rolled over, folding the pitiful excuse for a pillow Hermann had given him in half to at least try to get something resembling a comfortable set-up, which was still pretty hard, because the _floor_ was hard.  Hard and cold.  Just like Hermann’s _heart_.  If this had been Newt’s room, he totally would have let Hermann sleep in the bed with him, no problem.

Rude, is what it was.

He sighed again and shifted around _again_.  There was only a thin bedsheet between him and a cold metal floor and the blanket draped over him wasn’t a whole lot better.  That just didn’t seem fair at all.  It wasn’t _his_ fault his room wasn’t ready yet.

“You’re making an awful lot of noise down there for a man who is supposed to be sleeping.”

“Uh, I’m just breathing.”

“Yes, and you’re doing it very… audibly.”

“Oh wow, are you serious?  Are you actually being serious right now?  You’re annoyed at me for _breathing_?  What do you want me to do, Hermann, stop breathing?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.  I’m only suggesting you do it a bit more quietly.”

“Oh, okay.  Sure, no problem.”

“Thank you.”

For awhile, they laid there in what might have been comfortable silence if they didn’t intensely dislike each other.  As it was, it was close enough to comfortable that it was making Newt uncomfortable, because they didn’t _do_ comfortable – they did tense and angry punctuated by the occasional piece of thrown chalk or kaiju viscera.   This… this felt weird and unnatural.

Newt exhaled loudly.  Then he inhaled just as loudly.  He kept inhaling and exhaling at maximum volume for about ten minutes straight and was starting to feel a bit light-headed before the other man finally snapped.  By the time Newt realized there was a pillow sailing over the bed and hurtling straight towards him, he didn’t have time to dodge it.  It smacked him right in the face.

“You are a _child_ ,” Hermann grumbled.

“Oww!  Says the guy that just threw a pillow at me.  Oh my God, did you really have to hit me in the _face_?  Really?”

“That couldn’t possibly have hurt.  Don’t be so dramatic.”

“You threw it really, really hard.  I’m gonna file a complaint tomorrow.  ‘Dr. Gottlieb assaulted me with a pillow, and not a feather one, either – one of those memory foam ones, which are way heavier.’”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious in my entire life.”

“Now that, I believe.”

Newt ignored him and continued on, “You’re always complaining about me.  It’s about time I turned the tables.  Maybe this pillow thing will be the last straw and they’ll finally break down and transfer you somewhere far, far away from me.”

Hermann snorted.  “I can only hope.”

That kind of stung.  No, his _face_ stung, from getting smacked with the pillow – that’s all that was.  Newt rolled over to face the wall instead of the bed and wrapped his blanket a little tighter around his shoulders.  It was fucking cold, and lying on the floor really wasn’t helping.

It was going to be a long night.

~

Two hours later, he’d only managed to get a few minutes of sleep here and there, and he wasn’t really sure if that counted.  Even on a good day, he had a hard time sleeping, and this crap was making it pretty much impossible.  Every time he started to doze off – even just a little – he’d jerk awake again.

He sighed heavily.

“Newton.” 

He wasn’t sure if Hermann had still been awake, too, or if he’d woken him up with all his tossing and turning.  “Dude, I swear, I’m not doing it to annoy you, I’m just really–“

“Get over here.”

It was a good thing Newt was already on the floor, or he might’ve fallen over.  “What?”

“Get.  Over.  Here,” Hermann grinded out again slowly.  “Unless you’d rather spend the rest of the night on the floor.”

“Yes!  I mean, no!  I mean, yeah okay, I’m coming.”

He hadn’t realized how much he ached all over until he sat up.  Would it have killed them to spring for a little carpeting in these rooms?  Even the cheap, thin stuff would’ve been better than sleeping on a slab of concrete.  He groaned and climbed to his feet, dragging his pillow and blanket with him.  He pretty much fell over face-first the second he was close enough to the bed.  The mattress bounced and squeaked, and Hermann sighed.

“Do _not_ make me regret this.”

“I– I won’t, dude.  I really appreciate it.  Uh… thanks.”

“Yes, well, it was impossible for me to sleep with you fussing down there.”

“Hermann, I’m touched.” 

He actually was touched.  Moments like this were rare between them.  It was almost like having the days when they actually got along back – back when they were just writing letters back and forth, before they’d actually met in the flesh and things had inexplicably gone to shit.

“I mean it was literally impossible for me to fall asleep with all your moaning and groaning.”

“Oh.”

“Also, if you start snoring, I _will_ push you off this bed.”

And just like that, the moment was gone.  

Hermann’s mattress was made out of the same stuff that pillow had been made of, and it was actually pretty comfy when it wasn’t hitting him in the face.  With a bit – okay, a lot – of wiggling around, Newt got under the covers and was instantly about ten times more comfortable than he’d been on the floor.  The bed was so comfortable, and he was so tired, that within a few minutes he was out like a light.

~

Through the haze of sleep, he felt a warm, pleasant weight pressed against him.  It was nice.  He couldn’t remember the last time he’d woken up with someone– wait, _what_?  He opened his eyes and he couldn’t see for shit without his glasses, but he was ninety-nine percent sure that was Hermann’s head resting on his belly.  Just to be sure, he groped around for his glasses and hastily put them on.  Yep, definitely Hermann’s head, and definitely Hermann’s body pressed snugly against his, and definitely his arm draped across Newt’s waist.

Well, _that_ was unexpected.

“Uh, Hermann?  Buddy?  You awake?”

Hermann made an incoherent noise that Newt was just going to assume was a “no.”  Then he started snoring.  Oh God, oh no, that was _cute_.  Hermann wasn’t allowed to be cute.  This was bad.  This was really, really bad.

_Y’know, it’s not actually_ that _bad,_ a traitorous thought whispered.

“Stop that,” Newt whispered back.  He wasn’t sure if it was directed at Hermann, for snuggling up against him or himself for liking it – because he did.  He liked it a lot.  Shit.

What was the protocol for this sort of thing?  Newt had never _accidentally_ cuddled with someone before, and even though it looked like he was the cuddlee more than the cuddler, he kind of doubted Hermann was going to see it that way when he woke up.  What was he supposed to do?  Wake him up?  Try to sneak out of the room?  Crawl under the bed and die?

_…Sleep for a few more hours?_

It was kind of tempting.

Hermann stirred, and Newt froze.

“Dude, _please_ don’t push me off the bed.  It was an accident!”  

At least, he was pretty sure it was an accident – it _had_ to have been, because it’s not like Hermann ever voluntarily touched him unless he absolutely had to.  So, definitely an accident – and one that was technically Hermann’s fault, not his.  His brain managed to catch up with his mouth in time to inform it that it probably wasn’t a good idea to point that out, though.  That would definitely get him shoved off the bed.

Hermann smiled.  It was one of those soft, ninety-nine percent still asleep kind of smiles, but it was definitely a smile.

It was cute.  it was _sweet_.  It was the exact opposite of the grumpy, snobby Dr. Hermann Gottlieb that Newt had worked with for the past several years, and it gave him this huge surge of warm emotion that made his insides dance around.  They were definitely having some kind of moment.  Again.

_Quick, say something – do something,_ his brain urged.

He smiled back and grabbed a nearby pillow, squeezing it nervously.  “Uh.”

Then he swung it at Hermann’s face.

“Mwhaghghhgh!”

“Now we’re even.”


End file.
